Detailing a Roundhouse Boxcab

Over the last few days, I scratchbuilt the many details specific to Erie #20 boxcab. Over its life, this locomotive saw many changes to its cooling devices and exhausts. I decided to set the model in its later appearance when the paint scheme was simplified in the mid-50s. This locomotive, with boxcab #19, was scrapped in 1958. I'll only need to add details to the pilot and the model will be ready to be painted and decalled.

Remotoring a Roundhouse Boxcab

The defunct Model Die Casting used to make a nice little boxcab kit in plastic. For years, it's been a favourite of modellers who wanted to get a boxcab at a decent price.


Unfortunately, the motorization is absolutely garbage. I tried a few time to figure out a way to salvage as much as I could from the old drive, but came to the conclusion it was useless. In fact, the way trucks are powered by middle of the engine makes it absolutely unable to manage sharp curves. Given Harlem Station sports prohibitive 13.5" radius curves in some parts, I had no choice but to think about an alternative.

However the year, a common trick had been to replace the original drive with a Bachmann GE 44-ton drive. The most popular method is to sit the boxcab shell onto the 44-ton frame. Most people keep the pilot of the GE switcher which is plain wrong and looks silly. Also, the GE truck sideframes are kept in place emphasizing the weird look of the loco.


To be noted, the GE wheelbase, wheel diameter and wheel spacing are wrong too. Now, I had a challenge in front of me. How to make the GE 44-ton mechanism more acceptable and prototypical.

The new styrene undreframe

The first thing I did was building a styrene frame of similar size than the original metal frame to which I would attach the MDC "correct" pilots. It was a fast and easy build. Vertical styrene walls were built to prevent the frame to warp. They also provided a nice surface to add self-adhesive lead weights which is always a good way to improve performance. There's still a lot of space for a sound decoder and speaker.

Lead weights added to the new frame

The next step was the trucks. I decided to accept the wrong wheelbase as an inevitable trade off. However, the small GE 44-ton wheels had to go. Fortunately, the person who sold me the kit also provided an European Bachmann streetcar drive. The drive is exactly the same but the wheels are the correct diameter for a boxcab. It was just a matter of swapping the wheels and that big problem was now a thing of the past.

The shell is sitting to high on the frame

The last thing I wanted to correct was the sideframes. While the Roundhouse sideframes are a little bit crude, they are still better than keeping GE trucks. To make them fit the new drive, I cut the metal pins behing the truck, grinded the bushing behind the journal boxes and slightly reduced the depth of the peg securing the sideframe to the truck.

One could get rid of everything located at the back of the sideframes

With drill bits and cutoff wheels, I was able to notch the metal peg in such a way the sideframes could be mechanically attach to the truck's plastic pins. Be aware you will have to take time to adjust the sideframe height. Yes, the sideframe isn't a perfect match for the wheel, but it's almost imperceptible.

If I had to redo this, I think I would grind completely the sideframe metal peg and replace it with styrene. That way, it would be much easier to adjust the height.


Finally, my last modification was to remove about 0.75mm of material on the shell ends to make sur the carbody would sit correctly aligned with the pilot beam. The original Roundhouse design was a little bit weird because it didn't align. Now the shell sit properly!

I'll probably remove large part of the underframe diesel tank. Since I changed the wheel diameter, the trucks can't swivel freely. Also, only an air tank existed under Erie #20 and I'd like to follow the prototype as much as I can. It will also look more prototypical and eliminate the last visible remnant of the GE 44-ton.

Another challenge will be to find a way to mechanically fix the shell on the underframe. I don't have yet an idea how I'll do it. Once done, the fun part starts by detailing and painting the locomotive. It shouldn't be too hard. In that regard, I don't plan to buy parts since I consider this a low budget conversion.

Nice Boat!

Today Harlem Station reached another historical step in its ongoing history. Adding boats to a marine scene is truly the only way to make it believeable.

I finally completed the tugboat "Chicago" today by gluing some accessories. By far, I'm very satisfied by results because there's very little discrepancies with the real prototype. Unfortunatley, I can say the same about my failed attempt to convert the 1:72 Revell Coast Guard Tugboat which could someday end up on another layout or diorama.

Color pictures of Erie tugboats in the 50s show them quite shiny and well-maintained thus I decided to kept Chicago relatively clean.

The Art of Weathering

Too often we think we need to buy the most prototypical models available. In general, I do agree, but for some project, using more generic model is a matter of time or money. In my case, I'm working from old Roundhouse cars. In the past, I changed the running board, stirrups and grab irons. This is a very fun but  time consuming process. It also makes the cars a little bit more fragile, which is not a good thing for this particular model.

This time, I've used stock models. I didn't upgrade them. However, I decided to carefully weather them using several technics and layers to get a prototypical result. All cars were weathered according to prototype pictures. Lance Mindheim often like to remind us the choice of colors is one of the most crucial part of a layout. I do agree with him and it's why I think weathered cars are much more important than prototypical ones.

You will see that I didn't include any rust spots and rust streaking. This technic is too often overdone and doesn't fit old time cars which were never left to degenerate into rust buckets.

Here's the result after a very busy day changing plastic shells into realistic weathered steel cars.

A Few New Cars

A fellow modeler from a forum kindly sent me a few old cars to populate the layout. I didn't attempt at detailing them since they are purely operation models. However, I did rectify the color scheme when I could. This is particularly true with the NYC Pacemaker boxcar which got black ladders and saw the sliding door brackets removed and sill painted red.

They aren't prize winning models, but with a good coat of weathering, they should blend perfectly with the fleet of Roundhouse and Athearn cars. I took them as a challenge for improving my weathering skills.

NYC Pacemaker Boxcar (Walthers or Train Miniature)

Before:

After:

PRR 34ft hopper (Athearn)

Before:

After:

50ft Heavyweight Westinghouse Flatcar (Athearn)

This one seems to be a notorious foobie and I doubt seriously they would have used that kind of car on carfloat service! But it is noteworthy to say this cas can take 13" radius curves without problem!

After: